India extends support to Palestinian bid for UN membership

From Yoshita Singh
United Nations (PTI) - As a special UN committee
began reviewing the Palestinians' application seeking full
membership of the world body, India has said that their bid
for statehood should be recommended to the General Assembly.
"Palestine's application for membership to the UN is not
incompatible with, nor does it exclude, direct negotiations
between the parties to resolve the final status issues,"
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri
said here Friday while attending a meeting of the UN
Security Council's Committee on Admission of New States.
He said the committee should report to the UNSC that the
Palestinian bid for statehood should be recommended to the
General Assembly in accordance with the relevant provisions of
the UN Charter, Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security
Council and Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly.
Puri recalled that India granted recognition to the
Palestinian statehood in 1988 and was the first non-Arab state
to do so.
The committee that deals with admission of new members
began Friday the review of the Palestinian application,
submitted by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas last
week. The committee had met at a closed-door session for the
first time to consider the request for statehood.
Experts would review technical aspects related to the
bid, including whether the application meets UN charter
specifications, and are expected to report back to the
Security Council next week.
Palestine currently has observer status at the UN.
While the committee needs eight of the 15 votes on the
Security Council and no veto, the request needs nine votes at
the UNSC for being approved.
The US has already made it clear that it will veto the
Palestinian request.